Steve Ballmer Keynote

Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer - Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, addressed the UK's leading computing students, discussing the challenges facing the software industry today and how an organisation like Microsoft focuses on innovation to embrace disruption. This candid discussion with the audience gave a unique insight into Microsoft and highlighted why Computer Science talent and research is critical to the industry's success.

Lessons from Starting a Software Company

Andy McLoughlin, Co-founder - Huddle

Andy McLoughlin is a co-founder of Huddle.net, the online collaboration, project management and document sharing service. Andy discussed the highs and lows of the first two years in business and the lessons he learnt taking Huddle.net from an idea in the pub to 'one of the UK's most exciting start-ups'.

Science Behind Live Search

Jay Girotto, Principal Group Program Manager, Windows Live Search - Microsoft Corporation

Group Program Manager Jay Girotto, from Microsoft's Live Search development team, spoke about the research and engineering that go into indexing and searching the vast amount of information that is available on the Internet.

Microsoft Research Talk on CS Inside Halo 3 True Ranking System

Thore Graepel, Joaquin Quiñonero Candela and Ralf Herbrich, Researcher - Microsoft Research Limited, Cambridge

Ralf Herbrich is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft's computer science lab in Cambridge. In his work, he and his team combine cutting-edge research in computational intelligence and machine learning with their passion for computer games and the Internet. In this talk, Ralf revealed the magic behind the Artificial Intelligence of Forza Motorsport and the machine learning algorithm Trueskill that matches players in Halo 3 and other Xbox LIVE games. He also explained how simple geometry and advanced high-school maths mixed with tons of imagination can lead to exciting new possibilities in the realm of computer games and beyond.

Future User Experience Technologies

Paolo Barone, Academic Technologist - Microsoft Limited

One of the most important innovations in decades is coming, moving away from mouse and keyboard interactions to touch-based interactions. In this session, Paolo Barone spoke about the impact this will have on Computer Science and how developers will build innovative applications on top of this new user experience paradigm.

The Power of Students*

Joe Wilson, Senior Director of Academic Initiatives - Microsoft Corporation

Joe Wilson, Senior Director of Academic Initiatives, Microsoft Corp., opened the day with a reflection on the power that innovation and enterprise can bring to students. Joe illustrated how students have changed the world, discussing the role corporates play in empowering them, and highlighting why now is the best and most exciting time to be in the technology industry.

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